"It began for me with my first kuruma-ride out of the European quarter..."

October 17, 2005 6:46 AM

Explorionis a goldmine of travel accounts, from Hakluyt's Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of The English Nation and Bartram's Travels Through North &South Carolina, Georgia, East &West Florida,the Cherokee Country, the Extensive Territories of the Muscogulges, or Creek Confederacy, and the Country of the Chactaws to the Journals of Lewis and Clark and Washinton Irving's Astoria; Or, Anecdotes Of An Enterprise Beyond The Rocky Mountains and Dickens's Pictures from Italy and Lafcadio Hearn's Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan (from which I took the post title) to... well, find your own favorites. There's an astonishing amount of stuff there. "Of course you will act according to your own plans, and do what you think best—but FIND LIVINGSTONE!"
posted by languagehat (13 comments total)

This indeed is a good thing. I guess.
But...part of me wishes they were digitized jpgs from the actual books and another part of me doesn't particularly like the idea of reading this sort of stuff on a pc. I wonder how popular gutenburg really is - oh, actually it is pretty popular. That's probably because they can be downloaded, although I can't believe the 120 people who d/loaded Ulysses yesterday will be printing it out?!!
Bottom line for me then is that this is a launchpad to find unusual explorer books in meatworld for which I thank you. And they are missing Tschiffely's Ride.
posted by peacay at 7:15 AM on October 17, 2005

Sweet mother of God, Hakluyt online at last, and complete! I am trying to put together an online MA program in American history, and this post is solid gold. Put together with some of the other major primary source sites--American Journeys most notably--and it is becoming distinctly possible to do original research without camping out in an academic library. Thanks, Languagehat.

(Though I am a bit leery of the Lewis and Clark stuff at this site--it isn't clear which edition of the journals they are using. Better to go to the University of Nebraska's digital edition of the journals.)
posted by LarryC at 7:44 AM on October 17, 2005

This is very good. Of course one would prefer bound copy, but one would also prefer that pasta alfredo were a health food. I could carp at some things left off, but that would be pretty churlish given how much is here that I had never even heard of, much less read.

I would add here that I am always puzzled by the putting on line of titles that can be found in abundance any old where. But this- this is the internet finally doing what it's supposed to be doing.
posted by IndigoJones at 8:24 AM on October 17, 2005

Wowie - fabulous post, languagehat. Being a fan of historical travelogues, I am very psyched about this resource. Thanks so much!
posted by madamjujujive at 9:29 AM on October 17, 2005

I perhaps sounded a bit snippy +/- ungrateful. I'm not. I was just thinking out loud. A resource like this is only a good thing. Must be brand new. None of the links up top work yet.
posted by peacay at 9:55 AM on October 17, 2005

Great post - I plan to spend much time here.
posted by Staggering Jack at 10:48 AM on October 17, 2005

Awesome, awesome, awesome.

And while I do enjoy images of original texts, plaintext versions are by far the more important format to make available, for any number of reasons.
posted by freebird at 11:18 AM on October 17, 2005

So these are all copyright-free/expired?


Sweeet.
posted by gottabefunky at 11:26 AM on October 17, 2005

A great post from a great user.

Thank you very much.
posted by dios at 2:39 PM on October 17, 2005

Cool
posted by Smedleyman at 3:13 PM on October 17, 2005

Nice post. Lots to see and digest. I liked Mark Twain's travelogues as well.
posted by Eekacat at 5:22 PM on October 17, 2005

This is great. I just picked up a remaindered Eric Newby - A Book of Travellers' Tales, so instead of just having my appetite whetted by excerpts I'll have access to whole text. Ta very much languagehat.
posted by tellurian at 7:25 PM on October 17, 2005

Found it! Here is a sweet addition,Guy horsebacks the coast trail from Mexico to Oregon. neat little post, thanks, Ive book marked it for future pleasure.
posted by hortense at 9:51 AM on November 1, 2005